by Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports

by Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports

OAKLAND - Of the eight runs the Detroit Tigers scored in the first two games of their American League Division Series, seven came home without the aid of a hit, and three courtesy of Oakland Athletics errors.

On Tuesday the A's played a clean game - actually, "a perfect game" in the eyes of Tigers manager Jim Leyland - and as a result they won for the first time in this series, posting a 2-0 victory that snapped their six-game postseason losing streak.

Brett Anderson came back from an injury absence of nearly three weeks to shut down Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera and the Tigers with the help of some brilliant glove work.

The Tigers still lead 2-1, with Wednesday night's Game 4 matching right-hander Max Scherzer against Oakland rookie A.J. Griffin.

Two days after center fielder Coco Crisp made a two-run error that facilitated Detroit's 5-4 victory in Game 2, he gained a measure of redemption with a sensational grab.

With the A's leading 1-0 in the second, Crisp stole a home run from Tigers cleanup hitter Prince Fielder by ranging to the wall in center and crashing against it as he snatched the ball just as it was about to sail over.

"It was tremendous,'' said Anderson, who threw six innings of two-hit ball. "I made a bad pitch and he hit it like he should have, because I hung it, but fortunately it stayed, not in the ballpark, but close enough in the ballpark to be caught. That kind of propelled me to get through the rest of the innings."

Yoenis Cespedes, who drove in the game's first run with a single in the opening inning, robbed Fielder as well with a diving catch to turn a single into an out leading off the seventh inning.

Fielder, who could be excused if he smashed the water cooler in frustration, ended the game by bouncing into a double play against closer Grant Balfour.

Repeatedly hitting 92 mph with his fastball, mixing in sliders and fooling hitters with a curveball in the high 70s, Anderson allowed only one runner to reach scoring position. He got through the first inning on eight pitches and only faced trouble in the second.

The A's were taking a bit of a risk going with Anderson because he had not pitched since Sept. 19, the day he strained his right oblique when making his sixth start coming off Tommy John surgery. The Tigers were the opponents then, and they reached Anderson for three runs in 2 1/3 innings before he got hurt.

On Tuesday, he allowed just four baserunners while earning the victory in the first postseason start of his career.

A's manager Bob Melvin said Anderson was on a limit of around 80 pitches, the total he threw, but he didn't tell the lefty.

"As he's sitting over there right now he probably still didn't know there was a pitch count,'' Melvin said. "He tends to argue some during the course of the game (to stay)."

There was no need to extend Anderson when the A's can count on Ryan Cook, Sean Doolittle and Balfour to take care of the final three innings. They had failed to preserve two late leads in Game 2, but on Tuesday they combined to strike out five while giving up two singles.

Their effectiveness, the sharp glove work and a little pop â?? Seth Smith took losing pitcher Anibal Sanchez deep in the fifth to build Oakland's cushion to 2-0 â?? were reminiscent of the formula the A's used to win the AL West crown in the final series of the season by sweeping the Texas Rangers.

It's the same approach they hope will pay off when Griffin, their third rookie starter in the series, takes the mound tonight.

"That's how you win postseason games, pitching and defense and timely hitting; really, how you win all games,'' Smith said. "We had that. We got two runs and that's all we needed. Anderson was great and our defense was too."